


All I Ask of You

by shadowshrike



Series: A Royal Pain [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Additional relationships if you squint hard enough, Love/Hate, One Night Stands, Power Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-11-12 17:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18014846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowshrike/pseuds/shadowshrike
Summary: Niles has a complicated relationship with his devotion to Nohr's royalty as a retainer and his continuing hatred of nobles. Xander is determined to understand how it will impact his family's happiness. Niles would rather not analyze his feelings.





	All I Ask of You

**Author's Note:**

> I've been hankering to write a verse that plays with Niles' conflicting loyalties and personal prejudices regarding the royal family for a while. It was originally imagined as a self-indulgent back-to-back smutathon with the three older Nohrian royals (by blood). The characterization bugged me too much to go through with it, so instead, here's a bunch of inappropriate sexual tension, Niles being both okay and not okay with royalty abusing their powers for sex at the same time, Xander being cryptic, and lots of ignoring or misinterpreting feelings.

“The crown prince inviting his brother’s retainer for a private session. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Niles cooed, stepping into the royal's quarters.

Xander held up his hand to stop Niles from uttering anything further.  

“Leo may tolerate you speaking to him this way, but I will not,” Xander informed him cooly. “Shut the door.”

Straight to business, as usual.  Setting aside his quill beside a mountain of papers, Xander rose to his feet and waited for compliance in deafening silence. Niles turned to shove the heavy doors shut. When he turned back, Xander was still staring at him with predatory intensity.

A shiver raced down Niles’ spine. Those carnelian eyes cut like a whip breaking upon his skin. It was easy to see why men were eager to kneel at the crown prince’s feet. Niles wasn’t a short man by any means, but the Xander’s imposing stature never failed to make him feel small.  With the physique of a god and a face as handsome and cruel as the devil’s, everything about Xander made Niles’ blood burn with a twisted mixture of allure and disgust. Niles couldn’t resist the temptation of pushing further for punishment.

“Locking us in because you’re ashamed of your desires, milord? I promise that my tongue will bring you great pleasure if you let me use it,” he purred, letting his lips fall into a salacious smirk.

“That’s enough!” 

The snarl reverberated in Niles’ chest, making his body ache in the most delightful ways. However, Xander’s threatening step forward warned it was time to stop. There was a reason no soul in the castle dared interrupt the prince when he was in one of his moods (well, no soul but that insufferable, suspicious fop King Garon had dropped in his Xander’s lap). The fun of teasing out a reaction from Nohr’s most stoic blueblood wasn’t worth losing the life Leo had given him. 

Niles bowed, hair almost brushing Xander’s chest with how close they were standing. “My apologies, Lord Xander.”

The hard glare continued, but Xander sighed and gestured to the chair in front of him.  

“Sit,” he commanded, as if chastising an unruly dog.

“As you desire,” Niles replied. He obeyed the order swiftly, finding he rather enjoyed his new perspective as the crown prince remained towering above him.

“Do you know why I’ve summoned you?”

Niles shook his head. “I’m afraid not, milord. If I’ve offended, Lord Leo hasn’t made me aware of it.”

“And what,  _ exactly _ , is your relationship with Leo?” Xander pressed.

Niles cocked an eyebrow at the glowering prince. He knew the rumors better than anyone about him whoring himself out to his lord, fed them even, but he hadn’t realized a man like Xander would put any stock into it. “Is that not something Lord Leo would be better suited to...?”

“Answer the question.”

“Lord Leo and I share an intimate relationship. I tend to his every desire with my body and soul...but I have not defiled his bed, if that’s what morsel you’re after.”

Xander exhaled sharply, dropping his glare to pace like an hungry lion in front of Niles. If the crown prince was about to make a meal of him, Niles preferred certain types of ‘devouring’ over others. He expected to be disappointed.

“I see,” Xander said. “And has he expressed an interest in pursuing such a relationship with you?”

“You really think I’d refuse Lord Leo anything?” Niles scoffed.

The prince stopped his pacing. Furrowing his brow, Xander haltingly replied,  “I have witnessed your dedication first hand. However, orders for...intimate relations...are of a different nature than those to fetch or watch or kill in his name.”

“It makes no difference to me. My body is his to do with as he pleases.”

Niles had said those words many times before in his miserable life, but since becoming Leo’s retainer, he found they no longer made his stomach want to turn itself out on his boots. He genuinely enjoyed belonging to someone. If he was born to be no more than a mongrel, then Niles considered himself lucky to be rescued by an owner like Leo and would repay him with the dogmatic, adoring loyalty expected from a cur off the streets.

“I see.” The severity of Xander’s frown eased. “That is heartening.”

“My willingness to please your brother has excited you? If you wish to test the depths of my devotion, you could ask your brother to...”

“It is heartening that you have  _ not _ slept with him,” Xander cut him off before Niles could finish that train of thought.

“Milord?”

“Leo is inexperienced. He’s had few suitors, and most of those women were using him as a stepping stone to get closer to me. He never developed a closeness with them as he has with you. I won’t have someone incapable of an exclusive relationship distracting my brother from his duties.” Xander crossed his arms with an accusatory glare. 

Niles glared back. “I assure you, my relationship with Lord Leo is absolute.”

“Then why did you lay with Camilla?”

A startled noise that might have been a laugh escaped from Niles’ lips. “She shared all the sordid details with her big brother? Such a naughty princess…”

“Niles!”

“She asked,” he answered seriously. “She is a princess of Nohr, and I’m required to fulfill her desires, so long as they don’t conflict with my lord’s.”

Xander’s eyes narrowed, “You claim that you did not pursue her for her womanly figure or her power?”

“Goddesses are pretty to look at, but hardly appealing to those they’ve cast into the gutter. Still, a servant has no right to refuse when asked to worship,” Niles sneered.

He would never claim that Camilla wasn’t beautiful. Her voluptuous form was a sight to behold and even more alluring pressed against him, breasts heaving as powerful thighs used to controlling a massive, wild beast demanded his service. However, Niles’ attraction to her began and ended with her body. He hated her fake smiles and spoiled attitude. If Camilla hadn’t specifically ordered him to make good on the lewd remarks he threw her way to get her riled, Niles never would have stepped foot in her quarters.

Xander didn’t appear to believe him. He pressed on, grinding his teeth so hard that Niles swore he could hear it from where he was seated, “So, your defense is that you can’t refuse an order from royalty.”

“I wasn’t aware I needed to defend myself for having a night of fun. Perhaps you should try one, Lord Xander.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“I’m having trouble following what the subject is.”

“Your character.”

Niles snorted, “My character is vile. You’ve told Leo so at least a dozen times since he saved me.”

Xander pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off a growing headache. “This is getting us nowhere. Let me be blunt: I am here to protect my siblings from having their heart broken by an unfaithful partner. I had thought you weren’t the type to sleep with everyone so easily, despite your manner of speech implying otherwise, but it seems I was wrong.”

“Bedding Lady Camilla is hardly sleeping with everyone,” Niles reminded him. “And as I stated before, it was at her request. I didn’t stay the night, and I doubt the princess has any plans of a relationship beyond her bedroom.”

“So I am to believe that you’d have carnal relations with someone simply because they asked? No strings attached?”

“I prefer it. I’m not much of a romantic.” Niles met Xander’s cool gaze with a clever smile, “If you don’t believe me, you can always test the theory yourself.”

“What?”

“I’m starting to think the real reason you asked me here is because you’re jealous. Stuck here all alone, while your siblings can call someone to ease their ache at any time. Do your retainers not service you well enough, Lord Xander?”

Niles waited for a demand to shut his mouth. To get on his knees. Even to leave the castle immediately. All he got for several tense moments was quiet and closed eyes from the crown prince.

Then, “...Perhaps there is some wisdom in your words.”

That was quite possibly the last response Niles expected to hear. His good eye squinted, trying to make sense of Xander’s uncharacteristically favorable response to his taunts.

The crown prince continued, “I will not ask you to spend the night with me to prove your story is true. I only ask that you stay loyal to Leo and keep your relations with my sister private and without romantic entanglement unless you intend to see each other exclusively.”

“That’s it? All that build up for a premature release?”

“Yes. You are free to go.” With that abrupt dismissal, Xander turned on a heel to return to his desk and the piles of paper strewn across it. Niles hesitated, staring after him as he picked up his quill and began scratching it across pages once again.

“...why?” Niles muttered into the silence.

Xander’s hand never ceasing its flowing movements, he replied, “Because I’ve realized you are right. I called you in here, not to protect my family, but to sate my jealousy. To find absolute devotion, even without physical gratification, or to find pleasures of the flesh without requiring love...these are joys I am unlikely to ever experience. I should be grateful my siblings have had the chance to explore them with you. For now, you have my thanks, Niles.”

For a startled moment, Niles considered staying. Xander seemed content to let him remain, unbothered by the retainer’s presence and clearly hurting from his little confession. No one could fault Niles for indulging in the suffering of Nohr’s highest nobility if it was being offered up on a silver platter.

Yet the longer Niles lingered, the more he realized prince’s pain tasted sour on his tongue. Xander’s resignation to his fate smacked nothing of fear. Sad acceptance was the purview of peasants being forced to starve by their fat masters, not arrogant princes. There was no satisfaction in how the crown prince accepted his lonely existence. It reminded Niles an already broken prisoner, devoid of defiance when being led to another flogging. Utterly boring.

He didn’t care for how it made his chest feel like a wyvern took it in a claw and squeezed either.

“If that is all you desire of me, I will be on my way, Lord Xander,” Niles said. 

He bowed out of habit, though Xander didn’t look up from his writing. Only once Niles was well on his way to tracking down his lord for more orders, the door shut tight once again, did the prince’s quill pause.

“...It is all I can ask of you,” Xander murmured to an empty room.

 


End file.
